Under the Dragon Flag eBook

the workshops, which contain all the most modern machinery
and engines. The dockyard, and in fact a considerable
portion of the town, is supplied with fresh water
conveyed by pipes from a spring about four miles to
the north. There is a smaller dock for torpedo
boats, and a torpedo depot on shore where those weapons
can be tested and regulated. The entrance to
the port is defended by torpedoes and submarine mines,
although, as I noticed, some of the latter had been
so badly constructed and adjusted for depth as to show
above water.

For defensive purposes nature and art have combined
to render the place exceedingly strong. Ranges
of hills, varying from 300 feet to 1500 feet, surround
the port and town almost completely, offering scope
for fortification of the most formidable character,
advantages which, as far as construction goes, have
been well utilized, massive and lofty stone forts
occupying every point of advantage. I believe
they are of German construction. They bristle
with heavy Krupp and Nordenfeldt guns. The elevation
on the coast varies from eighty feet to 410 feet.
The land defences, though newer than those seaward,
are less powerful; the heaviest guns, of 21 and 24
centimetre, are in the latter. Everywhere the
forts are supplemented by trenches, rifle-pits, and
open redoubts or walled camps.

Such is, or was, Port Arthur, and when we remember
how the Turks held Plevna, an open town until the
earthworks were hastily thrown up round it, for months
against all the force Russia could bring against it,
one cannot but feel amazement that a place so powerful
should so easily have fallen. Properly defended,
it should be unreducible by anything but famine.
The coast defences are impregnable, and those inland,
though more susceptible of attack, should not fall
before anything short of overwhelming superiority
of force. I should like to have seen the 20,000
men whom the Japanese led against it take that fortress
in forty-eight hours from Osman Pacha’s army.
The Mikado’s generals, however, had formed a
perfectly just estimate of their own powers as against
those of the enemy. In fact, a third of their
force could have taken Port Arthur from the ridiculous
soldiers who held it.

The garrison in ordinary times amounts to 7000 men,
but before the Japanese attack it had been increased
to nearly 20,000. This is inadequate; 30,000
men at least should occupy the fortress in time of
war, and 40,000 would not in my opinion be too many.

The chief man in the place when I was there was the
Taotai, or governor, Kung, a brother, I have heard,
of the Ambassador to England. His office, I believe,
is civil; the military chiefs were Generals Tsung
and Ju. The soldiers, who appeared to range about
everywhere pretty much at their own discretion, were
an uncouth, rough lot, with very little of the smartness
of dress and bearing which we associate with the military
character. Everywhere was a most portentous display